The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is committed to supplier diversity and was awarded the Government Member of the Year Award at the Connect 2016 Supplier Diversity Awards. The ATO receives a large volume of submissions from potential suppliers and has pulled together some top tips for suppliers looking to do business with Government agencies.

Know how procurement is undertaken. Know who to contact, how to find opportunities and how to submit a competitive tender/quote. Being prepared for advertised opportunities and direct approaches will put your business on the front foot when it’s time to respond.

Ensure your website is up to date. Your website is the face of your business and procurement officers across both public and private enterprise spend a large amount of time looking over services listed on your website. Structure your site in a way that makes it easy to find this information up-front, with current contact details.

Communicate effectively. When you have identified an opportunity to supply to a Government agency, ensure you clearly understand the requirements set out in the tender documentation. You must respond by the nominated closing date and time. In most cases government agencies cannot accept late responses.

Be proactive. Initiate a cold call to government agencies to promote your services. Invest the time to get to know the particular business requirements of different agencies so you can target the areas most relevant to your business. The ATO is contacted regularly by Indigenous businesses and will listen to their capability statement and work to connect them to the relevant key stakeholder within the ATO.

You can find out more about the ATO and its procurement processes here. Thank you to the ATO and Nicholas Thacker of Black Business Finder (www.bbf.org.au) for these top tips.

Tagai Management Consultants (TMC) can provide advice and assistance in all aspects of Government and private sector procurement processes. TMC can be contacted via email info@tagaimanagementconsultants.com.au